There are but a handful of systematic studies on the history of automated teller machines (ATMs) yet all fail to address the issue of paternity while perpetrating ‘common wisdom’ beliefs. This article looks at the birth of currency dispensing equipment, the immediate predecessor to the ATM....

NetBill is a business model set of protocols, and software implementation for commerce in information goods and other network-delivered services. It has very low transaction costs for micropayments (around 1 cent for a 10 cent item), protects the privacy of the transaction, and is highly...